


Just Once

by afteriwake



Series: Stuff Of Improbable Legends [7]
Category: Sherlock (TV), Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Drunk Leonard, Drunk Molly, Drunk Sex, Drunken Kissing, Drunken Shenanigans, Drunkenness, F/M, Hangover, Implied Sexual Content, Inspired by Roleplay/Roleplay Adaptation, Let's pretend this didn't happen, Male-Female Friendship, Mardi Gras, New Orleans, Roleplay Logs, Sleeping Together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-29
Updated: 2016-01-10
Packaged: 2018-05-10 04:07:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5570560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>During the first Mardi Gras that Molly and McCoy spent in NOLA, the two of them went out on the town, got a bit too drunk for their own good, and things got a bit heated and went a <i>wee</i> bit further than either of them would ever have let them get if they'd been sober.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sideofrawr](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sideofrawr/gifts).



> So I told **sideofrawr** that since my last donation fic I wrote for her wasn't quite the minimum word count she could have another one that would be 1K and she gave me the prompt " _Leonard McCoy/Molly Hooper. Too much to drink leads to a little drinking out and a very awkward encounter at work the next day._ I tweaked it just a bit to set it prior to the clinic being open but having them living together as roommates at the time because i thought that be more funny (hope you don't mind, dear). And yeah, it'll be three parts so it's going to be longer than 1K.

New Orleans went absolutely crazy for Mardi Gras, she’d found. She wasn’t quite used to this, to any of this yet. But at least she wasn’t alone. Leonard had been brought with her, the two of them dumped in the French Quarter on their arses with nothing except the clothes on their back and his wallet in his pocket and her handbag on her shoulder. Thank God the magic had carried over and her debit card had worked here as well as it had in Lawrence; she wouldn’t have wanted to know what they’d have had to do without it.

Currently they were sharing an apartment in a building that might be used to house more people as they arrived, as there seemed to be more of them coming from Lawrence and other places and it had been a good idea to have a place for more of them to stay like Greaves House. It was all right, she supposed. She and Leonard got along quite well and had very few problems cohabitating. They were both very neat and tidy, and quite considerate of each other.

And besides, it wasn’t like either of them were bringing anyone over to shag like rabbits.

She knew why she wasn’t bothering. She was still hung up on Khan, the man she’d given her heart to, the one she’d seen disappear in front of her thanks to that damnable Seal. And with time travel shenanigans, unfortunately, she’d have to live through so much of the pain of seeing his damn facetwin all over the place again. She wasn’t sure she wanted to go through that again. She wasn’t sure she’d be able to without it breaking her heart all over again, to be honest. But at least for the moment, there was a lull. She didn’t have to see that man’s face all over yet.

Leonard, though…there had been women who had been interested in him, but he’d seemed not to notice, not to care. She knew he’d been through a rather gut-wrenching divorce, and his ex-wife had dragged him through the ringer and tried to leave him a broken man. With the help of James and his friends on the Enterprise he’d become a better man, even if he was a grump and a pessimist. She liked him, though. In fact, she was quite fond of him. He was one of her favorite people that she’d ever met.

They’d been making the arrangements to set up a clinic, like there had been in Lawrence, and it had been tiresome and aggravating. It had been so much easier in Lawrence, she had gathered, where there were people who could use magic to manipulate minds and they were used to weirdness and all of that. Here in NOLA, it was all so much more….normal. There were more laws and regulations that needed to be followed and things that needed to be arranged between lawyers and contractors and whatnot. It was all headache inducing, especially since she was in the process of having her credentials faked to try and get a job with the coroner’s office as well. It was going to be impossible for her to go back to teaching and while she wouldn’t mind working in the clinic she didn’t want to do so full time.

She had let herself into the apartment and saw Leonard sitting on the sofa, coat on and cross look on his face. She stared at him for a moment and then set her handbag down on the kitchen table. “Leonard? Is everything all right?” she asked.

“Mardi Gras,” he said.

She smiled slightly at that. “I take it that’s a bad thing?”

“An annoying thing,” he said. “It’s going on, it’s supposed to be a big deal, you’ve been preoccupied with clinic stuff, and it was suggested I give you a break.” He stood up. “No flashing anyone for beads.”

She chuckled at that. “Do you _seriously_ think I would lift my top and brassiere for some gaudy plastic beads? Do I seem to be that type of woman?”

“We’ll, I’ve never seen you after you’ve had a few drinks in you,” he said, his mouth edging up slightly. “And I gather the point of Mardi Gras is to get wasted and have good food and have a good time so we should at least _try_.”

“Are you going to purposefully get me drunk?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I was thinking about it,” his grin becoming wider. “It’d make this more bearable.”

“Well, let me get into something more comfortable and then we’ll see just what we can do about having an interesting first Mardi Gras in New Orleans,” Molly said as she made her way to her bedroom. This, she suspected, was going to be a _very_ interesting evening.


	2. Chapter 2

She had learned quite a bit about the particulars of Mardi Gras: that it could occur any Tuesday from February 3rd through March 9th, and that the fluctuating date had been established by the Catholic Church and its exact date was set to coincide with the first Sunday after the full moon that followed the spring equinox, and it was always scheduled for forty-seven days preceding Easter, which would be the forty days of Lent plus seven Sundays. That the official colors of Mardi Gras were purple, green and gold, with purple representing justice, green representing faith and gold representing power. That there was no real theme for Mardi Gras, but each parade would pick their own subject, and then the floats would reflect the krewe's theme for the year. She still wasn't sure how the krewes worked, but she was sure if she was there long enough she'd figure it out.

She wasn’t quite prepared for the crush of people, though.

“There’s too many damn people,” McCoy muttered.

“Well, let’s find a place to eat and duck in and escape for a bit,” Molly said. She saw something get tossed near her and grabbed it; one thing she prided herself on was her reflexes. She’d honed them well in Lawrence, working with James in the self defense classes he taught and in her own private lessons with Khan, when he was repaying her for her kindness for feeding him. She looked at what she’d caught, and her eyes widened. “Oh, these are lovely,” she said, looking at the heels in her hand.

“Who in their right mind throws a pair of shoes at a parade?” McCoy said, shaking his head.

“I _think_ that’s the Muses krewe,” she said, cradling them close. They looked to be her size, though she doubted she’d ever wear such a gorgeous pair of heels. She bent down and picked up a toy hairdryer by her feet, smiling as she slipped both the heels and the hairdryer into her handbag. “I think this is going to be a very good evening.”

“For you, maybe,” he said as they pushed their way away from the pavement towards the nearest restaurant.

“You’ll feel better once you have some alcohol in your system, I’m sure,” she said with a soft laugh as they managed to make their way to the door. He opened the door and let her in first. Surprisingly it wasn’t too crowded inside, but the food smelled delectable. She looked around and saw it was a Cajun and Creole restaurant, and then she zeroed in on their drink special. “Hurricanes are supposed to have a great deal of booze in them, Leonard.”

“Good. We can each have one,” he said. A waitress showed the two of them to a table with a smile and then gave them each a menu, asking if they wanted anything to drink as she got them each a glass of water. McCoy said two Hurricanes and she nodded, leaving them. “Still getting used to all this Cajun and Creole food here.”

“I rather like it. It’s quite a bit different than what I’m used to at home,” Molly said, perusing the menu. Her eyes landed on the chicken and sausage gumbo and she smiled. “I think I know what I want.”

“Oh?” he asked, still scanning the menu.

She nodded. “Chicken and sausage gumbo,” she replied.

“I’m leaning towards the shrimp etouffee,” he said. “And at least one of those Hurricanes.”

“That sounds like a delightful meal to me,” she said with a smile.

“There’s a thing at home that’s supposed to be a Mardi Gras thing,” he said, closing his menu and setting it aside. “A king cake? One of the guys who’s helping get the clinic ready mentioned his mama made them, and he brought it over for you. I think he’s got a thing for you.” He scowled slightly as he said the last bit.

“Was it Jeremy?” she asked. He nodded and she chuckled. “He doesn’t fancy me, Leonard. He wants to go into forensic pathology. I’ve been helping him with things, teaching him what I know from my time in the field. He probably gave us the cake as thanks. Besides,” she said as she picked up her glass of water, “he’s quite happy with his boyfriend.”

McCoy shook his head. “Not like I have any right to get jealous, right?” he said. “I mean, you’re still all hung up on…him.”

She shrugged as she took a sip of her water. “I do still love him,” she said. “But tonight I don’t want to think about that. It’s Mardi Gras, and it’s a time to celebrate. I want to get pissed, let my hair down, and have a good time. Live a little. And you do the same, all right?”

He nodded. “Fine. Twist my arm, why don’t you?” But he grinned a bit as he said it, and she grinned back at him. Perhaps tonight would be all right after all.

She hoped.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case you want to try the food/drink mentioned: [Shrimp Etouffee](http://spicedblog.com/shrimp-etouffee.html) | [Creole-Style chicken and Shrimp Gumbo](http://spicedblog.com/creole-style-chicken-and-sausage-gumbo.html) | [Classic New Orleans Hurricane](http://spicedblog.com/classic-new-orleans-hurricane.html)


	3. Chapter 3

By the time they left the restaurant, they were well and truly buzzed. She hadn’t quite realized how much booze was in one of those Hurricanes until she’d finished off one of them and asked what was in it. It was really quite tasty and she’d had another two after that. McCoy had had three as well while they were sitting there, and they’d both ordered a fourth to carry out with them as they walked around.

“I don’t like fruity drinks usually, but I’d make an exception for these,” McCoy said, taking a sip of his drink. “It would probably be the only way you could get me to drink rum.”

“Mmm, I could enjoy a rum and cola every once and a while,” she said, taking a sip of her drink and enjoying the tastes of passion fruit and orange juice playing on her tongue. “Especially if it’s spiced rum.”

McCoy tilted his head side to side. “Maybe a rum and Coke,” he conceded. He looked around at the crush of people around them, and she did the same. There were quite a few people getting rather frisky, and she was rather amused by that. There seemed to be an attitude in the air of “anything goes” that was rather interesting. He moved closer to her. “This is something I’d never be caught dead at back home.”

“Why not?” she asked, tilting her head. “I find it rather interesting. It’s exciting. Definitely different than anything I’d go to in London, anything my friends would expect me to attend.”

“Too many people being too…” He gestured to all the people around them, indicating a couple snogging in the alley. “This.”

“Oh, _you_ wanted to loosen _me_ up and now you’re getting all prudish,” Molly said with a laugh, sipping more of her drink. “And I should be the prudish one, with that being a British stereotype and all.”

“You don’t seem to be one, though,” he said, looking her up and down. 

“You know me well, Leonard, but you don’t know me as well as you think,” she said with a slight smirk.

“I could stand to get to know you better,” he said.

“Oh, you could?” she asked, moving closing to him.

“Molly Hooper, are you flirting with me?” he asked.

“ _Maybe_ ,” she said, reaching over to touch his arm. “It depends on if you want me to flirt with you. I mean, I don’t know if I seem to be your type.”

“And just what do you know about my type?” he asked, raising an eyebrow before he looked down at her arm.

“Well, from what James had said about bits out your past, the few times you did notice women, they were young and pretty,” she said. “I’m not really either.”

“It’s true you aren’t young, but you are quite attractive,” he said. He reached up with his free hand and moved her hair out of her face. “I mean, I don’t know why _you_ can’t see it. I thought you were smart.”

She rolled her eyes and stepped closer to him, ignoring the crowds around them. “I am smart, but when you have my track record with men, you doubt quite a few things about yourself and your attractiveness to the opposite sex.”

“So I guess I’ll just have to prove you’re wrong,” he said.

“Oh, you’d love that,” she said.

He debated whether he was going to finish his drink or not and then tossed it in the nearest trash bin before doing the same with her drink. She started to protest but he gave her a look. “I’ll get you another one if you really want one,” he said, moving close enough so that there was very little space between them.

“I don’t know, Leonard,” she said, moving her hands to his chest. “I may want something else instead.”

“Good to know,” he said, leaning in and kissing her. She grasped his shirt in her fingers as she kissed him back, pressing against him. She hadn’t expected to ever do this, kiss _him_ of all people, but really, it was a very nice kiss. In fact, it was one of the nicer kisses she’d had in her life. He reached over to pull her closer, and for a moment she didn’t give a damn that they were in the middle of a large crowd of people, that Mardi Gras was going on around them. All that mattered was she was kissing Leonard and she didn’t want to stop.

But stop they did, eventually, though the crush of people around them kept them pressed close together. “That was quite a kiss,” she said.

“Yeah, well,” he said, seeming just a tad bit embarrassed. “You aren’t that bad a kisser yourself.”

“I wouldn’t mind another one,” she said. “But maybe somewhere with more privacy.”

“If we can get away from the crowd, we can get a cab and head back to the apartment,” he said. 

“That should give us adequate privacy,” she said with a nod. She pulled away from him and reached for his hand, beginning to pull him away from the crowds, and he willingly followed her. Once the crowds were a little more scarce they went about locating a cab. Once they managed to get one they got in and he gave the driver the address of the complex. They sat close to each other, and she let her hand rest on his thigh. She wasn’t exactly sure what was going to happen tonight, how far she might be willing to let things go, but she didn’t care. It had been a long while for her, so long since she’d been with someone, since she’d been wanted, and it had felt quite nice.

He’d leaned over and pulled her in for another kiss before they got to the complex. It got quite a bit more heated than the one out on the pavement had been, and she honestly wondered if it got to the point where they went further than kissing if they’d actually make it to one of their beds. He slid his hand under her skirt a bit, sliding it up her thigh, and she moaned softly into the kiss before pulling away. “I take it we’re most likely going to fall into one of our beds,” he said.

She nodded. “I think so, yes,” she said, moving her lips towards his neck and nipping at the skin there. 

She felt him dig his fingers into her thigh slightly as he bit back a groan. “You have no idea what that’s doing to me,” he murmured.

“No, I think I have a very good idea,” she said, moving her hand farther up. She brushed her fingers across his lap and he pulled her closer to him in response. She lifted her head up and he kissed her again, one of those types of kisses that took her breath away. She never would have expected this from him, not having known him as well as she did, being the type of friends that they were. There had never been any attraction between them but this…she was surprised by this.

They arrived at the complex and she paid the driver quickly, and then they got out of the cab and stumbled out, making their way to the complex. They kept pulling each other close, kissing each other as they took their time getting back to their apartment. Once they got into the lift she pulled him into the corner, not even caring that they hadn’t hit the button for their floor. “Are we even going to make it to the apartment?” he asked, moving his lips to her neck.

“Eventually,” she said, tilting her head slightly and shutting her eyes.

“I am not normally like this, and it’s all your fault,” he murmured.

“Blame it on Mardi Gras,” she said, grinning. “That’s my plan.”

He pulled away at that. “Do you want to stop?” he asked. “I mean, if this isn’t something you were planning on, that you didn’t actually want to—”

She shook her head, leaning forward and cutting him off by kissing him again. “I’m just going to see what happens tonight,” she said, staying close to him when she pulled away from the kiss. “Whatever happens tomorrow happens tomorrow.”

He nodded at that, and then she moved slightly and pushed the button for their floor. The lift started to move and he looked down at her, settling his hands on her waist before sliding them to her lower back. “So if we regret this in the morning, we blame this on booze and the ‘anything goes’ attitude of Mardi Gras?”

“I don’t think I’ll regret this,” she said. “But if you do, I won’t hold it against you.” She moved her hand up to run her finger along his jaw line. “I promise.”

He pressed her more into the wall of the lift and then let his lips hover over hers, and she moved her hand to the front of his shirt and pulled him the rest of the way in to kiss him again. He let his hands slide up under the hem of her shirt, and she moaned into the kiss at the feel of his hands on her skin. Even though she was being more adventurous than she normally was, more daring, she wasn’t about to shag him in public. But this was rather titillating, she found.

Eventually the lift got to their floor and they disentangled themselves, making their way to the apartment. It took them a few tries, but finally McCoy managed to get the key in the door and the door unlocked, and the two of them went inside. Once the door was shut behind them and locked again, she reached over for him, this time moving her hands towards waistband of his trousers, pulling his shirt up and beginning to undo the buttons of his shirt. At the same time he went for the hem of her shirt, lifting it up so he could pull it over her head. She pulled her hands away and let him toss it away before he pulled her closer to him again. There was something exciting about the feeling of bare flesh pressed against bare flesh, she realized as he moved his lips to her pulse point and his hands to the zipper at the back of her skirt.

He used his teeth to nip at her skin and she moaned at that before she began backing them towards her bedroom, as it was the closer of the two. He got her skirt unzipped and then pushed it down to her hips and she stepped out of it and her shoes as they moved. She moved her hands to the waistband of his trousers and worked on the button and zipper and was in the process of working them off his hips when he backed her into the wall next to her bedroom door. He got his socks and shoes off quickly and then she gripped him tighter as he got his trousers down and then kicked them aside. “I’ll be damned if we don’t make it to a bed,” he said as she leaned forward and kissed along his jaw line.

“Mine’s on the other side of the door,” she said.

“I know that. You keep distracting me,” he said. He pulled away from her and scooped her up, and she looked up at him. “So stop distracting me.”

She grinned at him, reaching up to touch his face. “Or what?”

“Or both of us are going to have one hell of a miserable evening,” he grumbled. “Involving fighting over who gets first use of the cold shower.”

“All right then, Leonard,” she said, putting her arms around his neck. “Make my evening.”

He gave her a grin and then nudged her bedroom door open with his foot before carrying her into her bedroom. Whatever happened, whether they regretted it in the morning or not, she was fairly sure that at least tonight it was going to be one hell of an interesting evening.


	4. Chapter 4

There was sunlight coming into her window when she woke up, which meant that it was the next morning. She was almost surprised to find that she was not in her bed alone; he was still there beside her, sleeping soundly. She was glad for that, in a way. Not that she would have thought badly of it if he had woken up in the night and went back to his own room, but she thought better of him that he had stayed. She looked at him sleeping, saw the marks of years gone off his face, saw that he actually looked quite peaceful as he slept.

Part of her thought it might not be bad to wake up to this sight every morning, to be quite honest. To share her bed with him, to give herself to him.

But she couldn’t give all of her to him, and _that_ was the problem. He deserved so much more than that. She cared for him, greatly. She loved him in a way, to be quite honest. But she wasn’t _in_ love with him. She was in love with someone who wasn’t there, who would probably never be in her life again. And worst of all she was in love with someone that Leonard would never understand how she could love, no matter how she tried to explain that, perhaps, he really had changed. It would be a mess, and it would always be there, that she could love _him_ and love him, if she could. And she was fairly sure she could, eventually.

No, it was best to let last night be a onetime occurrence, despite the fact that part of her might want it to be otherwise.

McCoy stirred and then opened his eyes, blinking against the light. “Your room is too damn bright,” he said.

She grinned and then reached behind her head and handed him her pillow, and he put it over his face. “I can go shut the blinds,” she said before getting out of her bed, not really caring that she was starkers. She got up and closed the blinds on the window facing her bed, and then pulled the curtains closed for good measure. When she turned back she saw he was staring at her appreciatively and then she made her way back to the bed, slipping back under the covers. “Better?”

He nodded. “Yeah.” He handed her back her pillow and then rolled over onto his back, looking up at the ceiling. “You given any thought about what to do next?”

She nodded. “I’m thinking we blame it on the booze and Mardi Gras,” she said as he turned to look at her. “We were both lonely, we’re good friends, these things…happen.”

“They do,” he said, nodding his head. “I think we can pretend it didn’t, if we need to, to keep being friends. Worked well enough for Jim back home, though I don’t know how good friends he stayed with the women he slept with.”

“Well, I intend to make it a point to stay friends with you, Leonard,” she said, turning to face him. “I’ll push last night to the far recesses of my mind if I have to.”

“I’ll do the same, then,” he said. He sat up a moment and then looked over at her. “Are you sure that’s what you want, though?”

She looked him in the eye, and for a moment, just for a moment, almost reconsidered. She could, with time, move past loving what was essentially the ghost of another man. She could very easily grow to be in love with Leonard, she knew that. And that scared her. She had decided to guard her heart, to keep it safe. She didn’t want to risk it again, risk being left behind, being left alone. It was easier to lose friends than to lose someone you loved. She nodded slowly. “Yes,” she said quietly. “It’s best.”

“All right,” he said with a nod. After a moment he pulled the sheet and quilt away from him. “I suppose I should probably head to my own room, then.”

“Going to get more rest?” she asked.

“Doubt I can,” he said.

“Well, let me make us breakfast, then. I make a very delicious fry up, and I always make sure I have most of the American equivalent in the refrigerator,” she said, getting out of bed once again and heading to her dresser to get a fresh pair of knickers. She could clean herself up later, she supposed.

“One of those really greasy English breakfasts?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. She nodded. “Bad for the arteries, horrendous calorie count, but great for the potential hangover we’re going to have. Sign me up.” 

She smiled as she pulled out a pair of cotton knickers and slipped them on before reaching for the knob on another drawer to get out some pyjamas. As long as she didn’t think too hard on things or dwell on the evening too much, she should be able to put it behind her. She should be able to put it in some dusty corner of her mind and relegate it to occasional thoughts of all her “what could have beens” when she wanted to torture herself. As long as she didn’t lose Leonard in her life, she would be fine, because if that happened…well, she didn’t know if she could bear that.

She hoped she never had to find out.


End file.
